Author Notes: I spent six months in Sydney, Australia back in 2003, and my absolute favorite restaurant, which I still recommend to visitors headed to the best city ever, is bills. (Not Bill's. bills). Famous for its scrambled eggs, it also boasts incredible coconut bread, sweet-corn fritters, the best hot chocolate of my life, and ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter.

When I returned to school after that semester of Sydney bliss, I couldn't find (or afford) the fresh honeycomb used at bills, but this maple alternative, with a hint of almond, is quite nice. The hotcake recipe is cobbled together from a variety of my favorite methods, with a touch of lemon to keep things interesting. —MeghanVK

Food52 Review: WHO: MeghanVK is a TV programmer who prefers salty to sweet.
WHAT: Three-bite pancakes topped with blueberries and a creamy maple butter that melts ever so slightly atop the warm pancakes. (We mean that in a good way.)
HOW: The maple butter has just three ingredients -- can you guess what they are? -- and the pancake batter isn't much harder: just dry ingredients into wet, plus folding in some whipped egg whites for extra fluff.
WHY WE LOVE IT: You wouldn't think maple and blueberries were meant for each other, but you'd be wrong. And these pancakes are the fluffiest around -- we love the tiny size, too. —Food52

Serves 6

Ricotta Hotcakes

2cups ricotta

1/2cup milk

4 eggs, separated

1tablespoon sugar

1cup all-purpose flour

1teaspoon baking powder

1/4teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon lemon zest

butter for the pan

blueberries, for serving

Maple Butter

1/2cup butter, softened

1/4cup maple syrup (I prefer grade B, but it's up to you)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or to taste)

Make the maple butter first: dump the softened butter into a bowl, add the maple syrup, and mash together thoroughly with a fork. Add the almond extract and continue mixing until everything is combined. Scrape into a small bowl and set aside or refrigerate if not using within the hour.

Onto the hotcakes: Whisk together the ricotta, milk, egg yolks, and sugar. Sprinkle over with the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined. Stir in the lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites for as long as your forearms will let you, through the foamy stage until they start to form peaks (you can use a mixer for this, but for me, breakfast and electronics don't mix). Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. Add a little milk if the batter looks dry - this will depend largely on the quality and freshness of your ricotta.

Melt a knob of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Plop in about two tablespoons of batter per hotcake and cook for two minutes, until the undersides are golden, adjusting the heat as necessary. Flip and cook another two minutes or so, until cooked through, and remove to a plate. Continue until you have a pile of hotcakes. Serve with a dollop of maple butter and a handful of blueberries.

These are seriously amazing! I made them for breakfast and the kids gobbled them up. I used whole wheat pastry flour since that's all I had on hand. The batter was very dry before I added the egg whites so I did add some extra milk to soften it up.

Just made these and they are amazing! I used the lemon zest of 1 whole lemon (might even go for more, but I love lemon). Had some blackberries on hand, so I cut up small pieces and put in the cakes. Will definitely make again. Thanks!

Hey y'all! In case you're thinking of making these, I recently made the maple butter with a different brand of almond extract, and it... wasn't great. The maple-butter flavor was there, but it had an eau de rubbing alcohol thing going on. So as a PSA, unless you have a great brand of almond extract available, you might want to leave it out.

These were a big hit at my house today. We didn't have blueberries, so we topped them with strawberries instead and it worked perfectly. Now a question for you: I have some leftover maple butter. Can you think of any other ways to use it?

Congrats on your win! I made these for dinner last night and really enjoyed them -- great flavor and texture! I added a bit more lemon zest (probably 1 T) and tucked in frozen blueberries to the hotcakes immediately upon adding the batter to the griddle. My butter and maple syrup didn't come together all that well (guess my butter wasn't at the ideal temperature for mixing) but it was delicious all the same.